Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Ponyfic Roundup 166: Derpy Edition!

For those who know about such things: is there any significant difference between the type of stories you find on the AugieDog account and those you find on the Baal Bunny one? I'm probably missing something really obvious, but that's what I do.

Read it Later story count: 404 (-4)

This was planned and the stories read well before my recent Derpy-related post – yes, even the first story below – but it's a nice coincidence. I thought it was about time I had a themed edition of PR again, and Derpy was the winner of the Great Pony Lottery. Which was not in any way fixed. *cough* Here's this week's bunch o' fics:

Too Good For Us by Skeeter The LurkerDerpySad/Tragedy; 1k words; Apr 2013; Teen

We took who she was, and rejected her.

This little story dates from the S3-S4 hiatus, when it looked as though Derpy might be written out of the show altogether. It's very much of its time and feels like a museum piece now that Derpy has been back with us for several seasons. By its author's own admission, it was written at 3am and not edited before submission. If you can deal with all that, it's moderately cute and heartfelt, I guess, though fandom-as-narrator feels a bit silly. Scrapes a two as a mildly interesting window into the past, but there's not a lot of actual story here. ★★

A horror fic starring Derpy? That got my attention, and I'm glad I stuck with it. There's enough space for the story to breathe so that you have to wait for the full, well, horror of the situation to be revealed – but when it was, it certainly gave me enough chills. The prose is rather uneven, with some distracting mistakes – maybe related to how long the story took to write – so you're going to need to be invested in the plot to get the full impact. I'm a little iffy about how well this story fits Ponyville, but again it wasn't a deal-breaker for me. On the three/four boundary, but I'm bumping it into the higher category because its pacing is good and because it (eventually) actually scared me. ★★★★Let a Smile be Your Umbrella by PascoiteDerpy and TwistSlice of Life; 3k words; Jun 2015; Everyone

Caught in a rainstorm again, Derpy trudges off toward home. But along the way, she finds somepony down on her luck as well, somepony who very much reminds Derpy of her own childhood. It was a good day.

It's no spoiler to say that that somepony is Twist. This was just what I needed after that last fic: something cute, warm and fuzzy. Derpy's discussion with Twist about being different clearly does them both good, and the whole thing generally stays just the right side of crossing over into "Very Special Episode" territory. There's even a nice reveal about Twist's family. My one real complaint is Derpy's slight "Stranger Danger" mindset on a few occasions: "hugging a child she didn’t know that well probably wasn't a very good idea" feels rather out of place to me for canon Ponyville. It's only a small part of the story, though, and as a whole this is a heartwarming read. ★★★

A day in the life of a young Derpy. What adventures are to be had? What friends are to be made? And most importantly, what will die in hellfire?

In which filly Derpy escapes the (caring) clutches of Sir Respectable Butler the Fourth, inevitably known to his young charge as "Butt", and goes off to be a robot. This is really "Slice of Adventure", but blah blah tag restrictions blah blah knighty whine moan. :P Anyway, it's mostly nice, gentle fun, though rarely laugh-out-loud funny. I'm a bit iffy about the relaxed attitude taken to petty theft on a couple of occasions. Butt has a background story of his own, involving the nice mare at the dress shop where Derpy gets her robot "costume". There are occasional hints of something darker in the background, especially after another canon filly joins the action, but for the most part this is cute stuff. ★★★

Derpy is delivering the mail when she encounters a small problem, and she's determined to figure out what it is.

Cute little comedies are among the most common types of Derpyfic, and here's another. It follows the well-trodden "that escalated quickly" path, but it does so with good humour – in both senses of the term. Certain ponies' characterisation is a bit of a stretch in a canon fic, but the tale is funny enough to get over that; Celestia is a god example. The ending is nice, too. ★★★

Dinky notices her mother acting strangely one day. Why is she throwing her a party out of nowhere? And why does she seem so sad? The answer will change the lives of both mother and daughter forever.

* Fimf publication date Oct 2015, but A/N makes it clear the fic was written during S1. We're in tearjerker territory here, and you may well see the end coming some way out as I did. Back in 2011, popular fanon held that Derpy often spoke in a "word salad" way, which feels weird to those of us who post-date that era. Derpy's clear and affecting love for Dinky is the best reason to read this, but the reveal in particular is so divorced from what we'd expect these days that it may be hard to enjoy entirely. ★★Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: It'll be back to a lucky dip, including stories about Bon Bon and Trixie. (Not in the same fic, I'm afraid.)

Beep Boop is not the greatest story ever, but it is chock full of joy at its own premise. Filly Derpy is adorable, as she should be, and the fact that she calls him "Butt" never failed to amuse me. Also, unusual friendshipping!

A couple of other people got that "stranger danger" thing, too, but it's not really what I intended. I wonder if people are projecting their own knowledge of the real world? Anyway, it's just meant to say that if some random pony came up to another, struck up a conversation for 5 minutes, then hugged them, I think it might seem a little strange. In fact, I'll bet it's happened in the show. Pinkie's likely randomly hugged someone and gotten a strange look for it, even though ponies would give her some leeway as just something she does. For any other pony, though, they'd wonder what motivated it, more as a personal space issue and less of a van driver promising candy.

I wonder if people are projecting their own knowledge of the real world?

I think that's probably what I did, yes. It was very much an immediate reaction, rather than something that came to me only later. What did come to me later was wondering whether the regular town mailmare would really be a stranger to anypony much in any case.